LOS ANGELES—The phone calls came hours before anyone but team personnel were allowed into Dodger Stadium because Major League Baseball would have absolutely no nonsense on this day, one of its most publicized regular-season dates of the year.

Monday was Jackie Robinson Day around the major leagues, when players and teams honor Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier with tributes and uniforms all bearing his No. 42 on the anniversary of his major league debut. Robinson, while he played his share of what would today be considered “dirty” baseball and talked his share of trash from time to time, is remembered for not retaliating in the face of adversity, racism and belittlement.

So on this day commissioner Bud Selig—who instituted this occasion in 2004—would have no retaliation, no ugliness between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, teams that cleared benches Thursday in San Diego. Selig delegated the duty of relaying this message to Joe Torre, the league’s VP of baseball operations.

Torre made calls to Dodger manager Don Mattingly, Padre manager Bud Black and executives from both clubs, including general managers Ned Colletti (Dodgers) and Josh Byrnes (Padres) to deliver a singular message: Keep things in perspective on this day.

“That was basically the message,” Mattingly said.

“Yeah, I got the same call,” Black said.

Unfortunately, that message took on added meaning by the time it came. Not only was baseball celebrating Robinson’s legacy, but perspective also referred to the terrorist bombing in Boston earlier in the day.

As Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford and Cameron Maybin answered questions about what Robinson meant to them as African-American players, flat screens hanging in the clubhouses replayed the bombing at the Boston Marathon. More than a few times, each player would direct their attention to the televisions while they spoke.

“It’s crazy, man,” Kemp said. “I just don’t understand this. I’m praying for everybody that’s going through this in Boston. Every time you look up something bad is happening.

“We’re in a free country and we’re really lucky to be in the situations that we’re in.”

The situation Kemp and Crawford’s Dodgers and Maybin’s Padres were in Monday night required extra police presence in and around sold-out Dodger Stadium. Not because the teams were sitting on a perceived powder keg of baseball violence stemming from Carlos Quentin breaking Zack Greinke’s collarbone after Greinke hit him with a pitch last week, but because of the attacks in Boston.

That tragedy coupled with the Robinson anniversary stomped out the potential for an on-field mess here. Instead, there was a celebration for Robinson and a moment of silence for the victims in Boston before the game. Players downplayed the feud between their teams and Black downright dismissed it as a lingering issue.

The fans at Dodger Stadium, the same ones who were seen as a serious threat by The San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Kevin Acee on Sunday, were subdued. It probably helped that Quentin was back in San Diego while he serves an eight-game suspension stemming from the fight, but the Dodger fans seemed to understand the mood and acted accordingly.

But let us not be fooled. This goodwill and harmony was real for Monday, as it should have been, but baseball players have longer memories and the ability to clench a grudge unlike any other athletes.

Weeks, months, years, even decades can go by, but these guys don’t forget. They might switch teams, shift leagues, find new rivals, but they remember that one time about X number of years ago when so and so dotted such and such with a fastball in the small of the back. Retaliation can marinate—or fester—for as long as it needs to.

In baseball, eventually, payback will come.

Like Mattingly said Sunday, the Dodgers didn’t plan to cash their chip Monday and probably don’t plan to for the rest of this series. But, in time, the players might look to settle this as they see fit once the Robinson celebration and Boston bombing are further back in memories.

“Guys aren’t going to forget,” Mattingly said Sunday as the team prepared to depart from Arizona after a three-day hiatus from this mess. “You can do whatever, you can say whatever, you can write whatever. Guys aren’t going to forget.

Later, Mattingly added: “What’s been going on in baseball has been going on a long time. You can write that it’s stupid, you can write whatever.”

Like Black, Kemp had no desire to talk about what might happen between these teams. Kemp was one of the most angry players on the field last Thursday at Petco Park and he got into a shouting altercation with Quentin in the players’ parking lot after the game.

“There’s more to life than retaliation for something that, when you look at it and the things Jackie did for us and what he had to go through, really isn’t that big of a deal,” Kemp said.

The Dodgers and the Padres need wins, even this early in the season. Both clubs are struggling and neither can afford to lose another player to injury or suspension. But later down the road, in a couple of months or maybe even not until next spring training, this grudge can be settled.

On this day, though, every player involved was smart enough to respect the events of the day as they were more important than some feud that now seems silly when put into perspective.